AI Series from Cannes Lions 2017 presented by The Weather Company, an IBM Business

CANNES — Artificial intelligence may be the technology flavor du jour – but some companies out there have been using AI methods for years. In this video interview with Beet.TV, ad agency Omnicom Digital CEO Jonathan Nelson defines AI, outlines how his company applies the tech, and casts a note of caution. “AI’s been in our […]

CANNES — Can artificial intelligence predict the outcome of an election? Back in November, Havas did exactly that. When the world was betting on a Hillary win, Havas deployed what, like large tech firms, it is now calling its “cognitive” technologies, on 15 million news articles, candidates’ speeches and a billion social posts by 10 […]

CANNES — Artificial intelligence has been around for a long time – well, in theory. But one leading ad agency thinker says the technology has reach the point where executives simply must decide what their execution strategy looks like. So OMD’s Jean-Paul Edwards commissioned a Europe-wide research study to understand how companies in different countries […]

CANNES — After a few years in which the advertising industry has talked plenty about targeting, precision and data, many executives used last week’s Cannes Lions to talk about rebalancing the narrative with a nod back to creativity. But the two hemispheres of the industry don’t have to be divorced from each other, says one […]

CANNES — Marketers should start preparing for an age in which their independent intelligent brand assistants are at consumers’ beck and call to answer pre-purchase questions using artificial intelligence, according to one leading ad agency executive. At Cannes Lions, AI – perhaps surprisingly – emerged as one of the key trends and opportunities facing modern […]

CANNES — Driverless cars are already here. But that doesn’t mean drivers shouldn’t be able to take control at the wheel whenever they fancy putting pedal to the metal. The marketing chief of one big auto maker believes owners should be able to choose their vehicle’s driving mode depending on their preference. Earlier this year, […]

CANNES — As Cannes Lions played host to plenty of discussions about the role of artificial intelligence in advertising and marketing, many might have wondered how far off some of the technologies may be. Certainly, tools like 3D brand avatars imbued with lifelike emotions and empathy may seem far-fetched. But they are real, here and […]

CANNES — Artificial intelligence may get talked about a lot as a future technology. But the reality is that some of the big technology firms already make several AI and machine learning disciplines available for any developer to use in their own applications today. That means the time is now to pick a horse in […]

CANNES — Chatbots may have been one of the big tech trends of 2016, but few advertisers have yet embraced the idea of making artificial brand personas that consumers can interact with. Mindshare is one agency that has dipped its toe in the water – but it now thinks artificial intelligence technology may help catapult […]

CANNES — At the latest assembly of the world’s largest festival for creative marketing, the hottest topic up for discussion was… artificial intelligence? It may seem incongruous, but, as executives in industries the world over scramble to assess the benefits promised by AI, advertising decision-makers are amongst those getting excited. “At the agency level, we […]

CANNES — Clippy was never this clever. Artificial intelligence is now taking us on a journey to a time where we will interact with lifelike digital avatars in virtual worlds populated by thousands of artificial actors. That is the vision of artificial intelligence pioneer Mark Sagar. He should know – the CEO of Soul Machines […]

CANNES – Having spent nearly four decades in advertising, Carl Fremont perceives artificial intelligence as “beyond transformational” and “completely disruptive.” For their part, marketers need to be brave and experiment with AI while not thinking short term about it, Fremont says in this interview Beet.TV with The Weather Company CMO Jordan Bitterman at the Cannes […]

CANNES — At this point in the early development of artificial intelligence, many people probably assume that typical AI applications revolve around textual deployments. But we if you could use AI to create lifelike digital brains that, implanted in 3D facial models, could give life and character to virtual avatars? As far-fetched as it may seem, […]

CANNES — Who would ever have thought that the world’s biggest festival for celebrating creativity in marketing would have ended up discussing artificial intelligence, blockchain and cognitive technologies? But all these new-wave developments could be set to revolutionise advertising, as well as the other industries they touch. Companies like IBM and Microsoft are pitching their cognitive […]

CANNES – First off, don’t call them avatars. They’re “digital humans” with their own biologically inspired emotional models. And they are ready to help bring brands to life in amazing ways. In this, Soul Machines Co-Founder & CEO Mark Sagar walks The Weather Company CMO Jordan Bitterman through three immersive and utterly absorbing examples of […]

CANNES – Just as brands want to have a singular view of their users and prospects, forward-thinking media investment companies know they can no longer maintain channel-specific teams. It takes big investments in technology—some of it artificial intelligence-enhanced—to accomplish both. In the past 12 months alone, GroupM launched its global [m]PLATFORM and then bolstered its […]

CANNES – Lost in the headlines about so-called fake news is the reality that artificial intelligence is making things better. But it’s not lost on Washington Post. “I think the way we think about AI is how to strengthen our journalism,” Jarrod Dicker, Washington Post’s Head of Commercial Product & Technology, says in this interview […]

CANNES – Who would ever have thought that the world’s biggest festival for celebrating creativity in marketing would have ended up discussing artificial intelligence, blockchain and cognitive technologies? Those were some of the trends on the lips of ad execs as Cannes Lions got underway early this week – but how could they help advertisers? […]

CANNES – Bank of America believes that artificial intelligence, along with its upcoming digital assistant dubbed Erica, will make the financial giant more nimble and predictive with its customers. “I think it’s going to be an incredible enabler and make us much quicker,” BOA’s CMO, Meredith Verdone, says of AI in this interview with Beet.TV […]

CANNES – Artificial intelligence offers brands a wide spectrum of new capabilities, from machine learning insights to enabling more human experiences and interactions. “AI is in many ways like that word innovation,” says Lisa Donohue, Global Brand President of Starcom Worldwide. “There are so many parts to AI that fall under the equation.” In this […]